How factory supervisors exploit unemployed ladies

The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria is being exploited by some male officials of many manufacturing companies who openly demand casual sex from some of the unemployed young ladies who daily apply as casual workers in their firms.

Minister of Labour and Employment Chris Ngige

Unemployment rate in Nigeria is estimated at 10.50 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. This means that about 18 million Nigerians are employed. More than 50 % of these unemployed Nigerians are young ladies majority of who are from lower middle class families.

Investigation by Nigerian NewsDirect revealed that several young ladies most especially those from the less privileged homes often trooped to some of these industries daily to work as casual workers.

Our findings revealed that some of these young ladies are paid N700 stipend daily. The duration of the work is from 7a.m till 7p.m. However, the very high rate of unemployment in the country makes the industries attractive to large number of these young ladies and boys every day. Their presence is common feature around industrial estates in Ilupeju, Agbara, Ijoko and Ota end of Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.

One of the ladies who craved anonymity confessed that hardly will one find a young lady working in a factory that has not been sexually harassed.

According to her, some of the supervisors and those in the administrative office often demand quick sex from the girls mostly in their offices with a promise that the girls would always be selected to work everyday, if they agreed to have sex with them. In case the girl refuses, she will not be selected to work in the factory again.

According to one of the girls working in a plastic making industry located along Ijoko road, “the most annoying aspect is that some of these factory officials can only guarantee you for few months, when they are tired of the girl, they will pick another girl and remove the sex partner from the register for the new month, we are really suffering” she lamented.

Another girl in a manufacturing factory located in Ota and a biscuit manufacturing plant also located in Ota have similar issue, the young girls need to sleep with one of the top officials of the factory so as to have her name permanent on the register for the month.

But an official of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) who pleaded anonymity as he was not permitted to speak on behalf of the agency to the press said, there was nothing the agency could do on the issue because it was between two adults who agreed to have consensual sex for a benefit.

According to him, the lady has the right to reject the offer and heaven will not fall if such request was turned down.

He explained that the agency’s primary duty is to deal with the exploitation of Nigerian girls especially those being forced into prostitution or any form of slavery. The agency also deals with exploitation of minors and the under-age.

However, the President of Trade Union Congress, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama expressed dismay at the news as he had not heard about it before.

“We will go to action immediately so as to deal with the trend, we don’t want the experience in the banking sector to be transferred to the manufacturing sector,” he promised.